An optical mouse is an advanced computer pointing device that uses a light-emitting diode (LED), an optical sensor, and digital signal processing (DSP) in place of the traditional mouse ball and electromechanical transducer. The optical mouse detects movements by sensing changes in reflected light, rather than by interpreting the motion of a rolling sphere.
The optical mouse takes microscopic snapshots of the working surface at a rate of more than 1,000 images per second. Digital signal processing detects changes between one frame and the next and translates these changes into movement on the two axes using an optical flow estimation algorithm.
However, some surfaces do not allow the sensor and DSP to function properly because the intensity of the reflected light is too low and cannot be detected. In this case, the frame rate of the optical sensor is adjusted to increase the exposure time to compensate for the low intensity reflected light. However, such compensating methods reduce the optical mouse efficiency.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method to compensate the low intensity reflected light while meeting the optical mouse efficiency.